Concorde

Comments (0)

Transcript of Concorde

Concorde"Concord" was a super-sonic plane built on January 21, 1976 by the team at British Airways and Air France. It was the fastest plane ever and is much faster then any of the planes that members of the public can go on now.

Only 26 planes were ever built. It took 26 months to build one plane. It cost millions to make them and from the very start British Airways was losing money. The whole idea was that Concorde could travel at least 5 times faster that a normal plane.When it All StartedInside ConcordeSonic boomThe sonic boom is when a flying object goes faster then the speed of sound. It makes a loud bang and a tornado like shape forms around the object. Concorde broke the sound barrier many times.This is an exampleList of Famous People who Flew on Concorde1976 - Jan 21The Duke of KentPeter Shore, UK Secretary of State for TradeSir George Edwards

1977 - MarBritish Prime Minister Jim Callaghan

1982 - Nov 2the Queen and Prince Philip

1984 - Febthe Queen and Prince Philip

1985Phil Collins

1985 - Aug 6The Queen's Mother

1986British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

1987 - Oct 5Patrick Mannix of Reuters

1987 - Nov 22Richard Noble

1989 - Mar the Queen and Prince Philip

1989 - May 2Pope John Paul II

1991 - May 14the Queen and Prince Philip

1993 - Dec 3The Bee Gees

1995 - Sep 25A victorious European Ryder Cup golf team

1995British Prime Minister John Major

1998 - Jul 1 David Beckham and other football stars

1999 - Maythe Manchester United football team to the Champion’s League final in Barcelona.

1999 - Sep 21Jose Maria Olazabal

2001 - Nov 7British Prime Minister Tony Blair

2003 - Oct 24The final transatlantic flight had lots of famous people on it:Sir David FrostJoan Collins and her husband Percy GibsonJeremy ClarksonLord SaatchiPiers Morgan (who at the time was the daily mirror editor)Bernie Ecclestone Tony BennJoddie KiddLord MarshallChristie BrinkleyChris Gibson-SmithNigel HaversChairmen and CEOs of several major corporations including GlaxoSmithKline, BAE Systems and Merrill LynchList of Famous People who Flew on Concorde (continued)TicketsIn 2000, the price for a return ticket from New York to London was £6,819 (€7,127).JFK airport, New YorkFlight 4590 was destined for New York’s JFK airport on July 25th, 2000, carrying 109 people (including crew). As it neared take off speed, the Concorde drove over a thin metal strip on the runway, causing one of its tyres to burst. The strip had fallen from the underside of a Continental Airlines DC-10 that had departed minutes earlier.

Chunks of the burst tyre hit the under wing resulting in a powerful shockwave within the wing’s fuel tank that ultimately punctured it. Gases from the engines then ignited leaking fuel, starting a huge fire.

Flight 4590The crew managed to get the plane into the sky, but lost control moments later, slamming into a hotel. All 109 passengers and crew died, as did 4 people on the ground.The plane went down not just because of the fire, but because:

1. It was flying too slowly. 2. it was several tons overweight. 3. Two of its four engines were damaged.

It was flying too slowly because the pilot at the controls, Christian Marty, had pulled the jet into the air to avoid skidding sideways off the runway and colliding with another plane.French president Jacques Chirac was almost killed because of the crash. Concorde passed within seven yards of an Air France Boeing 747 on which President Chirac was traveling and which had just landed. Jacques ChiracWhyCrashed!SummaryThe investigationFor years after the crash people still didn't know for sure what caused Concorde to crash. Many people thought that it wasn't just a mere piece of metal that caused the accident. Some people said that there had been a fault with the design from the very start. However, when they carried out an investigation they found that the metal was the main reason for the crash.Time differenceOn a normal plane it takes 7 hours, 47 minutes to get from London to New York. On Concorde it took 3 hours, 30 minutes.

To get from Dublin to Sydney it takes 25 hours. On Concorde it took 11 hours, 6 minutes.

To get from Dublin to London it takes 1 hour. On Concorde it took about 15 minutes.Concorde FinishedThe British Airways team and Air France team decided that it was not worth continuing Concorde after the crash.

The 25 remaining Concordes are kept museums all over the world. British Airways and Air France said that they would never fly Concorde again.